Hardware Hack/Copy Nintendo Switch SD cards?

[Swhackyl]

Hey there.

I recently wondered if any USB reader existed to read the content of an official Nintendo Switch SD card on the market. I did not find anything, except for repairing purposes.

I thought it would be nice to read the content of an official SD-card, and 1:1 copy it to a second empty card. (I dont know what kind of SD card it is, apparently it is Nintendo proprietary stuff, don't know if it's bypassable). But let's imagine we can do this.

Here are several questions :
- Would this work ?
- Does the game on the official card has special key signatures or something people should expect and be aware of ?
- When inserted for the first time, does a Nintendo Switch writes a permanent flag to the card to say "I was used by <insert switch unique ID>" ?
- If there are no problems from the above points, would the game be checked online to see if people are running a version which has the same id as the original? It seems pretty overkill but we never know.

I'm certainly asking those questions to feed my curiosity, and if i'm going into this someday, it would be exclusively for me and not for commercial use. I do not wish the death of a great star.

I know some people will say "it is piracy, and we don't help with piracy". Well you are on a hacking forum or you don't ?

Thanks for reading

 

[RHOPKINS13]

I recently wondered if any USB reader existed to read the content of an official Nintendo Switch SD card on the market. I did not find anything, except for repairing purposes.

You don't need any special type of reader, to my knowledge there's no significant difference between an "Official Nintendo Switch" SD card and any other SD card, besides branding.

I thought it would be nice to read the content of an official SD-card, and 1:1 copy it to a second empty card. (I dont know what kind of SD card it is, apparently it is Nintendo proprietary stuff, don't know if it's bypassable).

It's pretty easy to make a 1:1 copy of a Switch microSD card. But the data is still linked to the Switch it came from, you cannot simply copy the data to another card and use it with another Switch. It can still be convenient to do this if you want to upgrade to a larger SD card.

- Would this work ?

Yes you can read the SD card, yes you can copy it, no you can't use the data with another Switch.

Does the game on the official card has special key signatures or something people should expect and be aware of ?

The Official Nintendo SD Card doesn't come with any games. If you buy games from the eShop and download them to the card, they will only work with the Nintendo Switch you downloaded the game on.

When inserted for the first time, does a Nintendo Switch writes a permanent flag to the card to say "I was used by <insert switch unique ID>" ?

Kind of. It uses a unique id but it's not permanent at all. If you decide you want to use your SD card with another Switch, you can just delete the Nintendo folder on it. You'll lose any games that have been downloaded on it though. You can still re-download them on the eShop though.

If there are no problems from the above points, would the game be checked online to see if people are running a version which has the same id as the original? It seems pretty overkill but we never know.

Yes, this is already very well known and many people have already been banned for playing games they don't own. If the game was ripped from a cartridge, it has a unique id kind of similar to a product key. If Nintendo sees the same key used by multiple systems simultaneously, you can expect a ban. If it's a game downloaded from the eShop, they can tell whether or not the game has been legally licensed for your Switch's unique ID, and if not, you can expect a ban.

I'm certainly asking those questions to feed my curiosity, and if i'm going into this someday, it would be exclusively for me and not for commercial use. I do not wish the death of a great star.

Nothing is exclusive for you, large numbers of people have already been hacking their Switch and running homebrew as well as pirating games for a long time now.

I know some people will say "it is piracy, and we don't help with piracy". Well you are on a hacking forum or you don't ?

Hacking is not piracy. If it was, hacking would be illegal, and a lot of the tools we use would be facing constant takedown notices from Nintendo and other console manufacturers. There is nothing illegal, nor is there piracy inherently involved, with modifying a console you purchased in order to run custom code (I'm based in the USA, your country's laws may vary.) In general, hacking is legal, but piracy, on the other hand, is stealing, which is very illegal. Which is why while we'll teach you everything you need to know about hacking your console, it's strictly forbidden to pirate games here or link to other sites that facilitate piracy. GBATemp is a gaming and gaming-related hacking forum, NOT a piracy site.

 

[Swhackyl]

Thank you for your complete answer. That is exactly what I wanted to know.